Imatges de pàgina
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TIT. Why, there it goes: God give your lordship

joy.

Enter a Clown, with a Basket and Two Pigeons. News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come. Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters? Shall I have justice? what says Jupiter?

CLO. Ho! the gibbet-maker? he says, that he hath taken them down again, for the man must not be hanged till the next week.

TIT. But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?

CLO. Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all my life 9. 9.

TIT. Why villain, art not thou the carrier? CLO. Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else. TIT. Why, didst thou not come from heaven? CLO. From heaven? alas, sir, I never came there: God forbid, I should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am going with my pigeons to the tribunal plebs', to take up a matter of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the emperial's men.

MAR. Why, sir, that is as fit as can be, to serve for your oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to the emperor from you.

TIT. Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the emperor with a grace?

8 -YOUR lordship-] Edition 1600:-his lordship. TODD. 9 - I know not JUPITER; I never drank with him in all my life.] Perhaps, in this instance also, the Clown was designed to blunder, by saying, (as does the Dairy-maid in a modern farce) Jew Peter, instead of Jupiter. STEEVENS.

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the tribunal plebs,] I suppose the Clown means to say, Plebeian tribune, i. e. tribune of the people; for none could fill this office but such as were descended from Plebeian ancestors. STEEVENS.

Şir T. Hanmer supposes that he means-tribunus plebis.

MALONE..

:

CLO. Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life.

TIT. Sirrah, come hither: make no more ado, But give your pigeons to the emperor:

By me thou shalt have justice at his hands.

Hold, hold;-mean while, here's money for thy charges.

Give me a pen and ink.

Sirrah, can you with grace deliver a supplication? CLO. Ay, sir.

TIT. Then here is a supplication for you. And when you come to him, at the first approach, you must kneel; then kiss his foot; then deliver up your pigeons; and then look for your reward, I'll be at hand, sir; see you do it bravely.

CLO. I warrant you, sir; let me alone.

TIT. Sirrah, hast thou a knife? Come, let me see it.

Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration;

For thou hast made it like an humble suppliant:-
And when thou hast given it to the emperor,
Knock at my door, and tell me what he says.
CLO. God be with you, sir; I will.

TIT. Come, Marcus, let's go :-Publius, follow

me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Same. Before the Palace.

Enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, CHIRON, DEMETRIUS, Lords and Others: SATURNINUS with the Arrows in his Hand, that TITUS shot.

SAT. Why, lords, what wrongs are these? Was

ever seen

An emperor of Rome thus overborne,

Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent
Of egal justice, us'd in such contempt ?

My lords, you know, as do2 the mightful gods,
However these disturbers of our peace

Buz in the people's ears, there nought hath pass'd,
But even with the law, against the wilful sons
Of old Andronicus. And what an if

His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits,
Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?
And now he writes to heaven for his redress:
See, here's to Jove, and this to Mercury;
This to Apollo; this to the god of war :
Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!
What's this, but libelling against the senate,
And blazoning our injustice every where ?
A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?
As who would say, in Rome no justice were.
But if I live, his feigned ecstsaies

Shall be no shelter to these outrages:
But he and his shall know, that justice lives
In Saturninus' health; whom, if she sleep,
He'll so awake, as she in fury shall
Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives.

TAM. My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine,
Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts,
Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age,
The effects of sorrow for his valiant sons,

Whose loss hath pierc'd him deep, and scarr'd his heart;

And rather comfort his distressed plight,

Than prosecute the meanest, or the best,

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as do-] These two words were supplied by Mr. Rowe; who also in the concluding lines of this speech substituted-if she sleep, &c. for, if he sleep, and-as she, tur, as he. MALONE. - even with law,] Thus the second folio. The first, unmetrically, even with the law. STEEVENS.

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[Aside.

For these contempts. Why, thus it shall become
High-witted Tamora to gloze with all :
But, Titus, I have touched thee to the quick,
Thy life-blood out: if Aaron now be wise,
Then is all safe, the anchor's in the port*.-
Enter Clown.

How now, good fellow? would'st thou speak with us?
CLO. Yes, forsooth, an your mistership be imperial.
TAM. Empress I am, but yonder sits the em-

peror.

CLO. "Tis he.-God, and saint Stephen, give you good den: I have brought you a letter, and a couple of pigeons here. [SATURNINUS reads the Letter. SAT. Go, take him away, and hang him presently.

CLO. How much money must I have?

TAM. Come, sirrah, you must be hang'd.

up a neck to a fair end.

CLO. Hang'd! By'r lady, then I have brought [Exit, guarded. SAT. Despiteful and intolerable wrongs

Shall I endure this monstrous villainy?

I know from whence this same device proceeds;
May this be borne ?-as if his traitorous sons,
That died by law for murder of our brother,
Have by my means been butcher'd wrongfully.-
Go, drag the villain hither by the hair;

Nor age, nor honour, shall shape privilege :—
For this proud mock, I'll be thy slaughter-man ;
Sly frantick wretch, that holp'st to make me great,
In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.

Enter EMILIUS.

What news with thee, Æmilius?

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-the ANCHOR's in the port.] Edition 1600 reads-the anchor in the port, TODD.

s Enter Emilius.] [Old copy-Nuntius Æmilius.] In the author's manuscript, I presume, it was writ, Enter Nuntius;

ÆMIL. Arm, arm, my lords: Rome never had more cause!

The Goths have gather'd head; and with a power
Of high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,
They hither march amain, under condúct
Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;

Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do
As much as ever Coriolanus did.

SAT. Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?
These tidings nip me; and I hang the head
As flowers with frost, or grass beat down with
storms,

Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:
'Tis he the common people love so much;
Myself hath often over-heard them say,

and they observing, that he is immediately called Æmilius, thought proper to give him his whole title, and so clapped inEnter Nuntius Æmilius,-Mr. Pope has very critically followed them; and ought, methinks, to have given this new-adopted citizen Nuntius, a place in the Dramatis Personæ. THEOBALD. The edition 1600 reads as in Theobald's old copy. TODD.

6 Arm, ARM, my lords;] The second arm is wanting in the old copies. STEEVENS.

Arm is here used as a dissyllable. MALONE.

i. e. to those who can so pronounce it. I continue, for the sake of metre, to repeat the word-arm, May I add, that having seen very correct and harmonious lines of Mr. Malone's composition, I cannot suppose, if he had written a tale of persecuted love, he would have ended it with such a couplet as follows?—and yet, according to his present position, if arms be a dissyllable, it must certainly be allowed to rhyme with any word of corresponding sound; for instance:

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Escaping thus aunt Tabby's larums,
They triumph'd in each other's arms."

i. e. arums. But let the reader determine on the pretension of arms to rank as a dissyllable. STEEVENS.

7 MYSELF HATH often OVER-HEARD -] Self was used formerly as a substantive. and written separately from the pronominal adjective: my self. The late editors, not attending to this, read, after Sir Thomas Hanmer,-have often.-Over, which is not in the old copies, was supplied by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Over is wanting in edition 1600. TODD.

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